High performance inductors are playing an increasing role in modern communication systems. Despite the superior performance offered by discrete components, parasitic capacitances from bond pads, board traces and packaging leads reduce the high frequency performance and contribute to the urgency of an integrated solution. Embedded inductors have the potential for significant increase in reliability and performance of the IC. Due to the driving force of CMOS integration and low costs of silicon-based IC fabrication, these inductors lie on a low resistivity silicon substrate, which is a major source of energy loss and limits the frequency response. Therefore, the quality factor of inductors fabricated on silicon continues to be low. The research presented in this thesis investigates amorphous Si and porous Si to improve the resistivity of Si substrates and explores amorphous Si as a structural material for low temperature MEMS fabrication. Planar inductors are built-on undoped amorphous Si in a novel application and a 56% increase in quality factor was measured. Planar inductors are also built-on a porous Si and amorphous Si bilayer and showed 47% improvement. Amorphous Si is also proposed as a low temperature alternative to polysilicon for MEMS devices. Tunable RF MEMS inductors and transformers are fabricated based on an amorphous Si and aluminum bimorph coil that is suspended and warps in a controllable manner. The 3-D displacement is accurately predicted by thermomechanical simulations. The tuning of the devices is achieved by applying a DC voltage and due to joule heating the air gap can be adjusted. A tunable inductor with a 32% tuning range from 5.6 to 8.2 nH and a peak Q of 15 was measured. A transformer with a suspended coil demonstrated a 24% tuning range of the mutual coupling between two stacked windings. The main limitation posed by post-CMOS integration is a strict thermal budget which cannot exceed a critical temperature where impurities can diffuse and materials properties can change. The research carried out in this work accommodates this temperature restriction by limiting the RF fabrication processes to 150°C to facilitate system integration on silicon.

The main contents of this thesis are improving a UWB LNA, and analyze the input-matching, the noise, and the gain. First we increase the width of the input transistor, and remove source-degeneration inductor. Those ways can increase the gain and reduce the noise of the circuit. In the input matching, we use a shunt capacitor, a series inductor, and the impedance of the transistor itself to achieve high frequency matching. The lower frequency matching is achieved by negative feedback resistor. The UWB LNA dissipates 10.14 mW power and achieves input return loss (S11) below -11.5 dB, output return loss (S22) below -11.9 dB, forward gain (S21) of 14.4¡Ó0.4 dB, reverse isolation (S12) below -26.7 dB, and noise figure (NF) of 2.6~3.5 dB over the 3.1~10.6 GHz band of interest. 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of -16.8 dBm and input third-order inter-modulation point (IIP3) of -8.1 dBm are achieved at 6.85 GHz.

The permeation of CMOS technology to radio frequencies and beyond has fuelled an urgent need for a diverse array of passive and active circuits that address the challenges of rapidly emerging wireless applications. While traditional analog based design approaches satisfy some applications, the stringent requirements of newly emerging applications cannot necessarily be addressed by existing design ideas and compel designers to pursue alternatives. One such alternative, an amalgamation of microwave and analog design techniques, is pursued in this work. A number of passive and active circuits have been designed using a combination of microwave and analog design techniques. For passives, the most crucial challenge to their CMOS implementation is identified as their large dimensions that are not compatible with CMOS technology. To address this issue, several design techniques – including multi-layered design and slow wave structures – are proposed and demonstrated through experimental results after being suitably tailored for CMOS technology. A number of novel passive structures - including a compact 10 GHz hairpin resonator, a broadband, low loss 25-35 GHz Lange coupler, a 25-35 GHz thin film microstrip (TFMS) ring hybrid, an array of 0.8 nH and 0.4 nH multi-layered high self resonant frequency (SRF) inductors are proposed, designed and experimentally verified. A number of active circuits are also designed and notable experimental results are presented. These include 3-10 GHz and DC-20 GHz distributed low noise amplifiers (LNA), a dual wideband Low noise amplifier and 15 GHz distributed voltage controlled oscillators (DVCO). Distributed amplifiers are identified as particularly effective in the development of wideband receiver front end sub-systems due to their gain flatness, excellent matching and high linearity. The most important challenge to the implementation of distributed amplifiers in CMOS RFICs is identified as the issue of their miniaturization. This problem is solved by using integrated multi-layered inductors instead of transmission lines to achieve over 90% size compression compared to earlier CMOS implementations. Finally, a dual wideband receiver front end sub-system is designed employing the miniaturized distributed amplifier with resonant loads and integrated with a double balanced Gilbert cell mixer to perform dual band operation. The receiver front end measured results show 15 dB conversion gain, and a 1-dB compression point of -4.1 dBm in the centre of band 1 (from 3.1 to 5.0 GHz) and -5.2 dBm in the centre of band 2 (from 5.8 to 8 GHz) with input return loss less than 10 dB throughout the two bands of operation.

Recently, there is a growing interest in applying electronic circuit design for biomedical applications, especially in the area of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR has been used for many years as a spectroscopy technique for analytical chem- istry. Previous studies have demonstrated the design and fabrication of planar spiral inductors (microcoils) that serve as detectors for nuclear magnetic resonance mi- crospectroscopy. The goal of this research was to analyze, design, and test a prototype integrated sensor, which consisted of a similar microcoil detector with analog components to form a multiple-channel front-end for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to perform microspectroscopy. The research has succeeded in producing good function- ality for a multiple-channel sensor. The sensor met expectations compared to similar one-channel systems through experiments in channel separation and good signal-to- noise ratios.

This paper aims to design a high-quality-factor suspending micro-inductor and to establish its equivalent circuit model for performance optimization. Two commercial software (Ansoft HFSS and Agilent ADS) are adopts to analysis the influences of quality factor on the geometric parameters and substrate materials. The designed micro-inductors are constructed by one bottom GSG electrode, two supporting copper vias and a spiral suspending copper conducting layer. As the simulated results of this research, the quality factor of the suspending micro-inductor is increased with the height of air gap, the thickness and width of suspending copper conducting layer and decrease with the number of turns, line space and outer diameter of suspending copper conducting layer. The influences of different shapes of the spiral suspending copper conducting layers on the quality factor of micro-inductors were also investigated. The simulation results well match to the theoretical prediction. Finally, this thesis has successfully derived two experiential formulas based on the analysis results to estimate quickly the inductance of the suspending micro-inductors with circular and square shape. Compared with the simulation results and realistic measurement results, these experiential formulas demonstrate 94-95% and 90% accuracies respectively.

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The modified aperture coupled MicroStrip Antenna (MSA) and Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA) for mobile applications are studied and presented in this dissertation. The designed antennas are improved multi-band and broad-band characteristics by the modification of radiating elements and/or the ground plane. The novel modified aperture coupling annular-ring antenna fed by stripline is the hybrid structure of the aperture coupling feed MSA and the proximity feed MSA. The proximity feed enable to concentrate the field strength toward the direction of the radiating element and the modified aperture layer contributes to provide the maximum coupling to the radiating element. The measurement bandwidths of the Aperture Coupling Proximity Feed Hybrid MSA #1(ACPF-HMSA#1, design #1) and ACPF-HMSA #2 (design #2) are 185MHz (7%) and 105MHz (4.1%), VSWR in less than 2, respectively. Two layers Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA) with the modification of the ground and radiating element was studied. The inserted T-shaped or L-shaped ground and inserted a slot and slits on radiating elements help to adjust the resonant frequencies to the target applications. The result of PIFA #3 (design #3) is presented a significant board-band characteristic on the upper band by 910MHz (from 1.45GHz to 2.36GHz) with VSWR less than 2.5. It covers GPS, DCS, PCS, and UMTS bands. Novel internal loop planar inverted F antennas (L-PIFA) with Inserted Concentrated Annular Rings (ICAR) and Inserted Loop Inductors (ILI) are presented as design #4 (ICAR-L-PIFA #4) and design #5 (ILI-L-PIFA #5), respectively. The simple loop structure consists of a meandered line. It increases the capacitance between adjacent lines. The Inserted annular-rings and loop inductors provide inductance values to the main loop antennas. Therefore, the impedance bandwidth of the design #4 is 570MHz (from 1.69GHz to 2.26GHz) with VSWR less than 2.5. And, the impedance bandwidth of the design #5 is 275MHz (from 1.63GHz to 1.905GHz) and 465MHz (from 2.19GHz to 2.655GHz) with VSWR less than 2.5.

A crescente necessidade de produzir circuitos integrados (CIs) cada vez mais miniaturizados para aplicações na faixa de microondas (frequências acima de 1 GHz) com baixo custo de produção e baixo consumo de potênca tem motivado a utilização da tradicional tecnologia Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sobre substrato de silício (Si). Uma aplicação de particular interesse em circuitos integrados operando na faixa de microondas a dos indutores ativos. Rotineiramente, estes indutores ativos são fabricados por meio de processos relativamente custosos como aqueles normalmente envolvidos em tecnologias empregando substrato de arsenato de gálio (GaAs). Por outro lado, novas técnicas de litografia CMOS têm possibilitado a construção de transientes MOSFETs alcançando elevadas frequências de operação. Dessa maneira, o objetivo principal deste trabalho é realizar uma investigação da possibilidade de implementação de indutores ativos operando na faixa de microondas empregando uma tecnologia CMOS convencional sobre substrato de silício. Historicamente, a tecnologia CMOS é atrativa devido às suas características de baixo custo de produção, baixo consumo de potência, alta imunidade aos ruídos e também por oferecer maturidade tecnológica. / The growing need to produce integrated circuits (ICs) increasingly miniaturized for applications in the microwave range (frequencies above 1 GHz) with low cost of production and low consumption power has been stimulating the utilization of traditional technology complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) on silicon (Si) substrate. One application of particular interest in integrated circuits operating in the microwave range is the active inductors. Ordinarily, these active inductors are fabricated by using relatively expensive technological processes like those usually involved in the gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology. Nonetheless, new techniques of lithography applied to CMOS technology have allowed fabricating MOSFETs transistors reaching high frequencies of operation. In this way, the main goal of this work is realize an investigation of the possibility to implement active inductors operating in the microwave range by using traditional CMOS technology, developed on silicon substrate. Historically, the CMOS technology is attractive by its characteristics of low cost of production, low consumption of power, high immunity to noise and also by offering technological maturity.

Indutores Ativos são circuitos que quando utilizados se mostram como uma opção viável para melhorar o aproveitamento de área do chip e o fator de qualidade do indutor, comparado com indutor passivo, além de possibilitar o ajuste de parâmetros. Neste trabalho foram estudadas três topologias e abordagens encontradas na literatura para indutores ativos: indutor ativo simples, indutor ativo cascode, indutor ativo com resistência de realimentação. Propomos uma técnica para garantir que o indutor ativo não apresente pólos com parte real positiva, quando conectado a um circuito RC externo, através do cancelamento entre um pólo e um zero. Propomos também uma nova abordagem de projeto para a topologia indutor ativo com resistência de realimentação a qual chamamos de indutor ativo com baixa resistência de realimentação. Para estudo de aplicabilidade foi projetado um LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) utilizando a abordagem de projeto proposta. O amplificador deve atender requisitos de ganho, frequência de operação, impedância de entrada, consumo de potência, figura de ruído além de estabilidade para cargas de saída (pólos com parte real sempre positiva), utilizando o indutor ativo com baixa resistência de realimentação. / Active inductors are circuits that when used prove to be a viable option to improve chip area usage and the inductor\'s quality factor, compared to the passive inductor, while also allowing parameter adjustment. This work studies three topologies and approaches found in literature for active inductors: simple active inductor, cascode active inductor, active inductor with feedback resistance. We propose a technique to guarantee that the active inductor doesn\'t present poles with a positive real part, when connected to an external RC circuit, through cancelling between a pole and a zero. We also propose a new project approach for the topology of the active inductor with feedback resistance which we call low feedback resistance active inductor. To assess the applicability, a LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) was projected using the proposed project approach. The amplifier must meet the requirements regarding gain, operation frequency, input impedance, power consumption, noise figure and also stability for output loads (poles with an always negative real part), using the low feedback resistance active inductor.

Increasing the power density of the DC-DC converters requires the size and weight of the magnetic components, such as inductors and transformers, to be reduced. In this thesis, the losses in nanocrystalline inductor cores are characterised and analysed, including the traditional core loss and the gap loss caused by the air gap fringing flux. The loss calculations will form a basis for the design and optimisation of high power inductors for DC-DC converters for EV applications. This thesis first characterises experimentally the core losses in four nanocrystalline cores over a range of operating conditions that are representative of those encontered in typical high power converter applications, including non-sinusoidal waveforms and DC bias conditions. The core losses are assessed by the measured B-H loops and are characterised as a function of DC flux density, showing that for a fixed AC induction level, the losses can vary by almost an order of magnitude as the DC bias increases and the duty ratio moves away from 0.5. The results provide a more complete picture of the core loss variations with both DC and AC magnetisations than is available in manufactures’ data sheets. An electromagnetic finite element (FE) model is used to examine the gap loss that occurs in finely laminated nanocrystalline cores under high frequency operation. The loss is significant in the design example, contributing to almost half of the total inductor loss, and the gap loss is highly concentrated in the region of the air gap. The dependence of the gap loss on key inductor design parameters and operating condtions is also explored. An empirical equation is derived to provide a design-oriented basis for estimating gap losses. Thermal finite element analysis is used to estimate the temperature rise and identify the hot spot in a nanocrystalline inductor encapsulated in an alumimium case. The temperature distribution in the core largely corresponds to the non-uniform distribution of the gap loss. The thermal FEA can also be used to evaluate different thermal management methods to optimise the design for a more compact component. The FE modelling of gap loss and the thermal predictions are validated experimentally on a foil-wound Finemet inductor, showing good agreement between the predictions and measurements under various operating conditions.